entity

en·ti·ty

(en'ti-tē),

An independent thing; that which contains in itself all the conditions essential to individuality; that which forms of itself a complete whole; medically, denoting a separate and distinct disease or condition.

[L. ens (ent-), being, pres. p. of esse, to be]

entity

(ĕn′tĭ-tē) [L. ens, being]

1. A thing existing independently, containing in itself all the conditions necessary to individuality.

2. Something that forms a complete whole, denoting a distinct condition or disease.

en·ti·ty

(en'ti-tē)

Independent thing; that which contains in itself all conditions essential to individuality.

However, an entitative habit belongs to the essence of the soul, and the essence of the soul specifies the substance as distinct from its accidents.

In any effort to explain the transposition that Lonergan proposed, I suggest that the following four points may provide critical guideposts: (1) accidental operations render the subject conscious; (2) an entitative habit resides in the essence of the soul, in the substance as distinct from in its accidents; (3) the entitative habit constitutes the remote principle of the consequent operations received in the proximate potencies that arise from it; and (4) the conscious manifestation of that remote principle remains distinct from the operations themselves.

And this experience, the enlargement of consciousness that can be called "being loved unconditionally from the ground of being that is God" is what radically changes us as persons, establishing an entitative habit (remote principle) and the consequent conjugate form of the habit of charity (proximate principle) by which we may perform the operations to which Lonergan is referring in the first thesis of De ente supernaturali.

that "the dynamic state of being in love with God" is itself a consequence of a prior gift of God's love for us poured forth into our hearts and of an entitative change in us effected and constituted by this gift.

He not only emphasizes the being in love denoted by the entitative habit, but also speaks of the transposition in the specific terms of its manifestation in consciousness.

Again,] the entitative habit at its root, then, is a being-in-love.

In light of the four points I listed above as guideposts, I raise the following questions in view of the theorem of natural proportion: Does an entitative habit make a difference in consciousness?

I suggest that, when Lonergan spoke of the "dynamic state of being in love with God," he had in mind the unity of consciousness as that unity reflects an entitative habit rooted in the essence of the soul and manifested in diverse acts of faith, hope, and love.

If an entitative habit manifests itself in consciousness as a quality of the unity of consciousness itself, the shift from substance to subject offers a complementary perspective for explaining how that conscious state of being-in-love may actually go unnoticed.

Referring to consciousness as a unity, the "dynamic state" reflects the entitative habit rooted in the essence of the soul; it expresses the justification effected by operative grace.

Theorem of the supernatural: The theorem is a speculative development that arose from Philip the Chancellor's affirmation of the distinction between natural and meritorious love of God and the implication that he drew of an entitative disproportion between nature and grace and so between reason and faith, human esteem and merit before God.

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